


In the Witch House

by trr_rr



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Body Horror, College Rhett and Link, Gore, Haunted Houses, Horror, M/M, jock loves nerd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-27
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2019-03-24 21:05:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13819431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trr_rr/pseuds/trr_rr
Summary: “Its the Witch House, man! Everyone in town knows this place. If you can get some cool looking shots from inside, your article for the paper's gonna be better than anything the school's reported on in years!”





	In the Witch House

**Author's Note:**

> I got two prompts!
> 
> Anonymous said:  
> Haunted house, school nerd/jock dinamic, gore stuff
> 
> rhinkipoo said:  
> Rhink taking photos of each other? What kind?

 

 

 

“C'mon Link!” Rhett tugged at Link's shirt sleeve and then his hand.

 

“Dude, I just, I wanna get some more shots from outside.” Link held the camera steady as he snapped a few more digital photos.

 

“You're not scared, are you?” Rhett teased.

 

“No.”

 

The house was old. The house was abandoned. The house, they had always been told, was haunted.

 

“Its the Witch House, man! Everyone in town knows this place. If you can get some cool looking shots from inside, your article for the paper's gonna be better than anything the school's reported on in years!”

 

Link was used to seeing Rhett after school at a match. Link's sport reports for the paper tended to focus on the character of their star players more than the scores and statistics. He had been known to include more photos of the football players in their muddy shorts than were necessary but that did not stop the team from adoring the way Link wrote about them.

 

Rhett had taken a shine to Link and enjoyed spending time with his new buddy. It fuelled his ego to hang around with a “nerd”. He often showed off his superior strength and size to Link's bashful appreciative gaze. Their lengthy, no questions asked make out sessions might have also had something to do with their new found friendship.

 

“Don't be frightened, Link. I'm here, I'll protect you.” Rhett put his arm around Link's shoulder and gave him a quick squeeze. “C'mon.”

 

The creak of the rusted iron gate sent a shudder down Link's spine. The pointed roofs, the dirty windows and the dark wooden cladding that hung to the facade for it's life all told Link that their plan had been a bad idea.

 

“Come on, bo.” Rhett closed the gate on Link and leaned over it to hover his own mouth just above Link's lips. “I know you to feel protected. What better place to keep you safe than a haunted house, hm?”

 

Link sighed and leaned in to take the kiss Rhett was offering. Their hands tugged at Link's shirt. Grabbed at his hips, stroked down to squeeze firmly at his behind and drag him forward into Rhett's body and his hot embrace.

 

“It's the middle of the day.” Rhett breathed. “Nothing's gonna happen.” Rhett took Link's hand and lead him up the path. It was over grown with dry yellowed grass. “Not while I'm around.”

 

The porch was straight out of a horror movie. A busted up old rocking chair leant up against the side of the house. Above it was a smashed window pane, the paint had curled and flaked away from it to leave a pile of crusty shavings below.

 

Link had to agree, it was nice to be with a big tall jock like Rhett who knew how to keep him safe. Link was not a wimp by any standard but just having Rhett's long arms there to surround him when he got scared was a wonderful treat.

 

The screen door was disgusting. Dead bugs of all types were sticking every way out of the torn mesh cover. The frame of the door hung by one hinge. The front door itself was open, left half shut by the last sorry souls to visit.

 

“Guess we don't need to knock.” Rhett laughed. He gentle pulled the screen away and held it open for Link to enter. “After you.”

 

“How charming.” Link would have rolled his eyes if he were not so on edge. “Ugh.”

 

“It's fine, I'm right behind you.”

 

Link stepped under the screen and the arch made by Rhett's arm into the main hallway of the house. Link did not move a muscle until Rhett was standing beside him.

 

“This is pretty cool.” Rhett breathed.

 

The hallway was golden in the afternoon light. Dust and mold spores hung in the air to give the space a sense of immense closeness.

 

“Let's check out the kitchen first” Rhett stepped forward and Link followed close behind. It was interesting to see a house as it would have been generations ago. The walls were still wallpapered, despite their blackened fungal appearance, Link could still make out the pattern.

 

Wet carpeted stairs lead to the upper floor of the house to their right as they moved together. Old photos of families still hung crooked on the walls leading up. Link tried not to look at them, he half hid his face in the shoulder of Rhett's jacket.

 

He snapped a photo of a table as he passed, an old dust covered Bakelite telephone with an old fashioned dial still sat there, its cord no longer connected to the landlines. There was a tiny closet under the stairs, as most old houses had, with a rotten latch and rusted padlock. The ornate handle and pretty carved wooden frame drew Link's attention so he took another photo. The flash lit up the hall.

 

“Ew, there's a refrigerator in here.”

 

Link turned and followed Rhett's line of sight to the fridge. It was an old bulky vintage model with a huge silver handle and a cream painted shell. From under the fridge door they both noted a thick black sludge that oozed and had hardened onto the black and white linoleum floor.

 

“Don't even think about opening it.” Link warned. He took a photo of the sickly slime.“We don't need to catch any diseases from this place.”

 

“Oh gosh, look at the sink.” Rhett's shoulder was pressed firmly against Link's own. It made him glad that they had chosen to trespass into such a filthy place, if it meant Rhett's fear had him seeking out bodily contact. “Is that hair?”

 

The sink was built into an ugly counter top. The lino covering had bubbled and warped away with the heat and the damp. The sink was filled with black stagnant water. The taps were over grown with spongy mold.

 

“It looks like it but there is no way I'm sticking my hands in there.” Link took another photo and almost dropped it in the disgusting water when a noise drifted to them both from somewhere in the house.

 

It was a gurgling groan. A wet, creeping sound that seemed to know there was someone in the house to hear it.

 

“Did you hear that?” Rhett squeaked.

 

“Yeah, I did. Yeah, I heard it, man. Oh, gosh, Rhett, I think we should leave.” Link gripped Rhett's jacket and his eyes danced around the dirty kitchen.

 

“No dude, come on.” Rhett whispered as loudly as he dared. “Let's see what it was. Might be rats or a bird in the attic or something.”

 

“Rhett, I know what birds sound like and that was nothing like a bird.”

 

“Don't be a pussy, Link. I'm here, I told you. Who's gonna mess with you when I'm here, huh?”

 

“It didn't come from the attic, Rhett. I think it came from under the stairs.”

 

They both turned away from the sink to look at the little door in the hallway.

 

“You think it leads down to the basement or something?” Rhett asked.

 

“I don't know, man. I wanna leave.”

 

“We can't leave now. We don't have your story yet.”

 

Rhett backed Link up against the dirty counter. His warm hands were welcome where they gripped at his waist.

 

“I don't wanna take you home yet.” Rhett bent down and placed a soft kiss just under Link's jaw. His newly grown-in beard rubbed curiously against Link's throat. “Just wanna be around you. Don't know why. You just, make me feel so good.”

 

Link smiled and felt the goosebumps along his arms crackle at Rhett's warm touch. He let his head angle just so and the soft wet kiss they shared in the half lit damp heated Link's warm blooded skin. Their tongues eased together and their bodies met. They surged against each other all youthful heat and energetic hunger.

 

As soon as their moment had started, it finished. Rhett strode to the door. He looked back at Link with an assured smile and paused to check for any more interesting noises.

 

“Doesn't sound like anyone's in there. You wanna take a look?”

 

“No.” Link cleared his throat the air was still and thick with the smell of mold.

 

“Come on, won't it be cool to take a bunch of creepy photos down in an old abandoned cellar?”

 

“No.”

 

Rhett laughed and steadied himself against the door frame to raise up one of his huge booted feet so he could bring it down on the rotten latch. It splintered into pieces and fell along with the padlock with a clatter to the misshapen floor boards.

 

“Come on. That was cool.” Rhett stood with valiant pride, his hands on his hips

 

“Yeah, that was pretty cool.” Link admitted.

 

Another noise drifted through the frame of the house and this time, Link knew it came from under the stairs.

 

“Ok, I'm creeped out.” Rhett admitted. “Will you come with me?”

 

“What? No, no way. I'll stay up here in case I need to run for help.”

 

Rhett prised the little door open. It came up to about shoulder height for Rhett. He grimaced as the door opened outward and the black endless basement came into view.

 

“What if I break my leg down there or something?”

 

“I'm not forcing you to go down there, Rhett.”

 

Link stepped up behind him and peered down into the darkness.

 

“This is crazy. Who knows what's down there, man.” Link said.

 

“We don't even have a flash light.” Rhett sighed. “Ok, I'll go down, find a light switch and then you can follow me. Ok?”

 

“Nuh uh.” Link shook his head.

 

“Come on, Link. Let's do this together.”

 

Rhett had a light in his eyes, the same light Link saw in him before a big game.

 

“Ok. You go down there, switch on the light and I'll follow.”

 

“You promise?”

 

“I promise.”

 

Link had to hide his face when Rhett kissed his cheek just to will away his blush. Rhett ducked under the low door frame to edge his way down the first wooden step.

 

“It smells so bad in here, man!”

 

“Yeah, like gosh darn garbage dump. I can smell it from here.” Link covered his nose with his shirt collar to fend off the stench.

 

“Ew, man, I just touched the hand rail and it's all slimy.”

 

“Well don't touch anything.” Link called down into the darkness.

 

“I'm gonna go down, now. Ok?”

 

“Ok.” Link echoed back.

 

Link clutched his camera to his chest as he listened to Rhett's footsteps. They were heavy and when they came to a stop Link expected to see a light flicker to life.

 

There was silence.

 

“Rhett?” Link called. “Rhett, don't play around. You found anything?”

 

There was no reply and Link shifted from foot to foot. He stuck his head into the doorway and could see nothing. Nothing but black damp dark.

 

When Link leaned back out into the hallway the house around him was no longer sun lit. The dirty windows were darkened. The slit of afternoon light outside had turned pitch black.

 

“Uh, Rhett? If you're trying to scare me it's working. I really don't wanna be here. Can we just go home, now?”

 

A gurgle. A crunch. A wet unsettling snap resounded from the basement and Link leapt back against the opposite wall. The mouldy wallpaper seeped through the back of his shirt as his gaze fixed on the black void before him.

 

Then, to Link's utter relief, he heard footsteps ascending the stairs.

 

“Oh, thank God.” Link pressed a hand to his chest and heaved a sigh. He sagged and smiled. “Rhett, you scared the crap out of me.”

 

Rhett did not reply. The footsteps continued and just out of sight, Rhett stood on the stairs. Link could only just make him out.

 

“Rhett?” Link huffed. “Stop playing around, I've had enough.”

 

There was a gurgle. A Crunch. A wet unsettling snap as Rhett's seemed to lift his arms and bend gradually down to see Link under the low door frame.

 

Link lifted his camera, aimed it at Rhett's bent figure and snapped. The flash lit up and Link's vision was filled with a man bent in half, his limbs at angles unfathomable. Bone and blood poked though flesh.

 

Rhett's face, unseeing and swollen, was a grotesque mockery of what it once was. Bleak grey eyes with no pupil, eyelids that sagged and drooped away from the face. His jaw misaligned, his neck at an unthinkable angle.

 

Link screamed but his petrified body would not move. Black tendrils of mould from the wall behind him threaded into his shirt to weave him into place.

 

Whatever was staring at him from the darkness stepped forward with a bone crunching lurch. It's spine perpendicular to the legs, it gurgled with inhuman interest at Link's presence.

 

Link struggled, he wailed and writhed against the wall, the mold sloughed off his arms and down his legs as he moved, itching and terrified.

 

A thud resounded through the house when Rhett's body arched forward as though it had fallen to the ground. The knees bent backward unnaturally, the broken hands scrabbled at the ground in a mockery of a crawl. It moved like a crab side on as Rhett's head twisted at the neck and bent to view Link with an absent unseeing stare.

 

As it approached, Link screamed again and battered at the thing's disfigured face but his efforts were futile as black spores oozed their way up his arms and over his mouth to bind him. The creature scaled his body with crunching bone snapped fingers, grabbing him wherever it could.

 

He could not tear his gaze away as he was slowly engulfed by the animated corpse of his friend. Link howled and writhed and his writhing tore the wallpaper from the wall behind. He fell to the floor with the creature atop him, bound by fetid mold and shuddering.

 

Link's petrified body stiffened and convulsed when the side of Rhett's body burst open into uncountable rows of sharp, impossible teeth. Blood and Saliva dripped from the tooth-full cavity and Link heaved at the hideous visceral sight of it.

 

Link's spore covered arm was wrenched forward and as his limb was slowly devoured in its entirety he could feel the ridges of the monster's throat like the walls of a rib cage, the wet heat of its drool, the undulations of its rough and powerful tongue as it tasted his skin.

 

Link moaned and sighed in his sleep. His grip around Rhett's middle was comforting in the soft morning light under the covers.

 

Rhett groaned.

 

Link stirred beside him at his back.

 

“It's nothing, buddy.”

 

He eased his way out of Link's embrace to sit with the blanket around his lap, Link's arm still limp around his middle. What a horrific thing to dream. Rhett had not had a nightmare that vivid since he was a child.

 

He shook the images from his mind and stroked a hand over his messy hair. He smoothed his beard and stretched his arms up over his head.

 

Link's camera sat on the bedside table.

 

Rhett was filled with ridiculous dread as he watched his own hand approach it. He lifted it easily and brought it into his lap. He turned it on and was greeted by the usual colourful light up screen.

 

The hair at the back of his neck stood on end as he dared to select the gallery of images. It was silly, to be frightened of what he had dreamt in the light of morning.

 

He flicked through the pictures, some of their dogs, some of the back yard. He flicked faster and saw the sky, birds, trees, cars and faster still until he settled on one photo in particular.

 

This one was different.

 

It was photo of a doorway. A dark and oddly size doorway. Just out of sight, though lit up with an artificial glare stood a man. A tall man, his face could not be seen for the low framing of the door.

 

The arm around Rhett's middle tightened. The air in the room grew cold. The steady sleep heavy breathing from behind Rhett had ceased.

 

There was a gurgle. A crunch. A wet and unsettling snap.

 


End file.
